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Is it a painting, a sculpture, or a parody on either of these? Drying Canvases (2025) by Karina Puuffin (1997) could very well be all the above, and yet the artist considers her works to be paintings first and foremost. She became interested in testing the boundaries of the canvas after being introduced to various approaches to painting while studying at the art academy. Influenced by artists like Frank Stella and Jessica Stockholder, she explores possibilities for also involving the surrounding space in her paintings, and for making form, colour, and sculpture dynamically overlap. For this she finds inspiration in the clear contours and bright colour blocks used in comic books and manga. By intentionally employing an almost child-like style, she light-heartedly zooms in on the relationships between flat and three-dimensional, real and imaginary, authentic and fake.
Drying Canvases is based on Puuffin’s childhood memories of Ukraine. The idea arose when she was making the pastry for Ukrainian varenyki dumplings, which constantly changed shape while she was rolling it out. These actions brough her back, in spirit, to her grandmother, with whom she used to make these dumplings. For the installation, Puuffin translated the sheets of pastry into colourful, shapeless pieces of canvas hanging from a washing line – another domestic image from the past. The catapult-shaped poles are furthermore reminiscent of her childhood toys. Puuffin thus combines nostalgic childhood memories with absurdism and situates these within the context of groundbreaking developments in painting.
Text: Esther Darley
Translated from Dutch by Marie Louise Schoondergang (The Art of Translation)